Tag: google

Google commands nearly 80% of Web and 90% of mobile search traffic on the planet. With global search leaders such as Yahoo, Bing (Microsoft), and Baidu (in China) still commanding between 5 and 15 percent each, they are forces not

Google commands nearly 80% of Web and 90% of mobile search traffic on the planet. With global search leaders such as Yahoo, Bing (Microsoft), and Baidu (in China) still commanding between 5 and 15 percent each, they are forces not to be ignored, but we know the clear winner of this battle in the war for consumers’ attention. People google things. And, they’re googling your business’ products or services to see Google reviews.

So Google has decided that these local reviews of your products or services are important to the decision-making process for consumers. And, if the search juggernaut thinks this is important, it’s best to take advantage of the opportunity that Google’s review platform provides (which is built within Google Maps and is managed with the Google My Business dashboard).

Often, local businesses don’t understand how to gain traction with Google reviews. Or, they don’t understand Google’s review policy. So, here I’d like to outline how to take your business to the next level with getting (mostly good) Google reviews.

Note: If you have a bad product, service, location, staff or customer service, this methodology won’t help you, unless you decide to fix these management/operations issues. I can’t also help you remove Google reviews. If the problem is deeper than that and not working, I’d head over to the Google My Business community to learn how to handle spam, fraudulent, and other wrongful review issues.

Set Your Review Capture System Up | Getting Google Reviews

Now that you have your business listing claimed and verified, you can watching the Google reviews pour in, right? Uhm, no. Sorry. There’s still quite a bit of work ahead. But, that’s an important milestone on your way to getting (mostly good) Google reviews! To really start getting the reviews flowing, follow my three-step process for soliciting and capturing customers’ reviews on Google.

Step One

Get your Google Review link. I don’t know them, but (for creating such a great tool and being Canadian, I can’t help but think they’re good and nice people) the folks over at White Spark agency have provided the free Google Review Link Generator.

Step Two

Create a special customer service email address that is handled by someone dedicated to handling negative feedback, preferably you or someone high enough to make substantive, timely decisions and actions to turn unsatisfied customers into raving brand advocates.

A happy customer who buys and leaves your business and says nothing about you to anyone is of no really value in the world of reviews. An unhappy customer that you’ve helped fix their issue is one that will tell many more people about his or her experience and has a great value to you for review purposes! Seize opportunities of unhappy customers turned happy ones, and the meat of how to do this is in Step Three.

Step Three

Send your customers either upon purchase, delivery or at their highest satisfaction peak in your relationship, a review request. Turn this into a system that is executed precisely and consistently throughout your business operations.

This review request communication will read something like this:

Hi, [Customer’s Name],

We appreciate your business! As part of our process to continually make good on our [product/service] and our customer service promises, we would really appreciate your feedback. This also helps new customers evaluate our [product/service/business] and helps us grow our business to continue living up to our standards. Could you take a few minutes to review us?

Yes, I love our [product/service]! No, I had a bad experience.

Thank you,

[Name]

[Business Name]

Now, the “Yes, I love your [product/service]!” is hyperlinked to your Google Review link that you generated in Step One. And, your “No, I had a bad experience.” link is to your special customer service email address. Mostly good reviews go to Google, while bad feedback primarily gets sent to someone who can deal with it.

Your responsibility is now to handle the negative feedback with “white glove” treatment. That’s a topic we cover in our next blog post. But, it is imperative to solicit these Google reviews well and consistently. Train your staff (and yourself ) to identify appropriate times and places for asking for Google reviews from your clients, including but not limited to:

by email,

printed on receipts,

by phone,

In-person, or

on your website after purchase.

Once you’ve managed to get this three-step process in place and tweaked it so that you can see it working consistently in your business, you will start to reap the rewards of mostly good Google reviews while having a pipeline of new reviews coming in regular. And, in doing so, hopefully that will start to bring meaningful, profitable traffic to your Google My business listing and to your business.

In the past few months, Google has been busy! Google added some fancy charting features to Google Sheets, Android Pay partnered with PayPal, Google NoCaptcha reCaptcha arrived, Backup and Sync from Google became available, and easy HIPAA compliance showed up

Google and G Suite (formerly Google Apps for Work) constantly changes and some of it’s pretty important to the overall productivity of a Small Business. Other changes, not so much. This ongoing Web and Beyond blog series, What’s New at Google parses through the chaff so you know what’s going on at Alphabet and its most powerful Search Engine subsidiary, Google. These posts update you about new updates to the Google ecosystem that affects you as a Small Business owner and entrepreneur. These are the exciting and frequent enhancements that Google makes to deliver better products for you, as well as danger zones to avoid when they fall short.

It’s really important for Small Business owners to secure their business data. Laptops and mobile devices break, get lost, and are stolen. And, when (not if) these incidents happen, Small Businesses are put in catastrophic positions. Don’t let this happen!

Google has finally released its anticipated backup solution (for Windows and Mac OS X) and it’s available for G Suite too, so this is going to be really great for Small Business. It uses the data of your Google or individual G Suite user account storage space for the data you backup. It allows you to selectively choose which folders to backup in Google Drive, and which folders to backup to Google Photos.

What’s next for Google payment and loyalty experiences – What’s New at Google

Google’s The Keyword blog, which is the omniblog for all of Google’s products and services, wrote an article about its new payment and loyalty upgrades it’s making across the Google and Android ecosystems. This may seem technically trivial and summarily benign to you but if you’re a local Small Business, this is incredibly important.

As Google upgrades it Google Payment API and Card Linked Offers API (the services that connect Google tools to your eCommerce websites and mobile apps), the more you’ll have the ability to drive retail traffic into your business.

Here’s an example that will be possible someday very soon, and even sooner if you’re using a Clover Small Business Point of Sale solution:

Now Jane walks into that yoga class and has a great experience. Before leaving, you, the savvy yoga studio owner, let’s call her Yogi Jill, have Jane sign-up for your loyalty program. If she comes to a few more classes, then she’ll get a discount on a monthly package going forward. Every time Jane uses Android Pay for touchless payment at the yoga studio, Yogi Jill is able to track data about Jane and push new offers to her when they’re earned. This keeps the relationship warm, Jane getting her asanas sharp, and the retail traffic continuous.

And, if you’re selling products, note that this works similarly for retail stores as well. My advice to Small Business owners right now is to make sure that you’re using the technology that connects to Google and don’t invest in any Point of Sale solution provider that isn’t going to integrate with NFC payment (i.e., Android Pay and Apple Pay), as well as connecting to your loyalty program, and Google Payment and Card Linked Offers APIs.

Google adds some fancy charting features to Google Sheets – What’s New at Google

Image: www.blog.google

Google Sheets has introduced machine learning into its skill-set through the Explore feature. You can use natural language searches for data you have in your spreadsheet workbook and get that data visualized more easily.

If you’re a Small Business trying to make better decisions, the more you can centralize your data into Google Sheets and make it visual, the easier those decisions can be. You can export data from Google Analytics, your CRM, and recent purchase information from your Point of Sale or invoicing software, then import those into one Google Sheets workbook. From there, you can use the Google Sheets Explore feature to unearth insights that will help you create stronger customer relationships.

Google NoCaptcha arrives – What’s New at Google

So, we all know the bane of Internet’s existence are spammers, hackers, and trolls. But, for the average user, the most prevalent annoyance are the images that you need to decipher and complete in order to complete forms, known as CAPTCHA/reCAPTCHA.

reCAPTCHA is a free service that protects your website from spam and abuse. reCAPTCHA uses an advanced risk analysis engine and adaptive CAPTCHAs to keep automated software from engaging in abusive activities on your site. It does this while letting your valid users pass through with ease.

Of course, this is less than ideal, because the onus is on your fickle website visitor to have the patience to complete the reCAPTCHA puzzle in order to submit a contact or other types of forms on your website. Google is solving this with invisible NoCAPTCHA. With the new NoCAPTCHA, the common website visitor won’t see a reCAPTCHA puzzle unless they’re identified as a likely spammer. The website publishers and visitors the world over all exhale a collective sigh of relief.

As a business website publisher, all you need to do is setup Google reCAPTCHA on your website, and the rest is taken care of for you by Google.

Google brings Smart Reply to Gmail on Android and iOS so you never have to type again – What’s New at Google

The last update I wanted to cover is Google’s update to its mobile apps for Gmail. They’ve implemented Inbox by Gmail’s Smart Reply functionality into Gmail Mobile. This is great for those one word to one sentence responses that comprise of many email messages we receive on a daily basis. This is available in the consumer-side Gmail and in G Suite Gmail, so check it out and see if it’s helpful to your productivity.

More Updates – What’s New at Google

Here are some other highlights over the past few months, if you want to dig deeper:

In our latest Beyond Google Webinar, I had the pleasure of talking about “Getting Found on Google: Search Engine Optimization for Local Small Business.” This is an important topic and one in which is even more important today with increased

In our latest Beyond Google Webinar, I had the pleasure of talking about “Getting Found on Google: Search Engine Optimization for Local Small Business.” This is an important topic and one in which is even more important today with increased Web traffic competition, especially in local communities.

Getting to the top of a Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is more complicated than ever when updating and contributing content to your website, blog, and Social Media. For local Small Business, there is an added layer of trying to drive local Web and Mobile traffic to our websites, not traffic from national or international audiences who can’t buy or use our products or services. For the majority of local Small Business, most of your revenue comes from a five-mile radius from your business location. In this Web-based presentation, we talked about what you should do to create a Web presence that optimizes for a local audience.

In this Webinar, we covered:
– Who benefits from local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)…and why the answer is every business;
– How to create a targeted local Web presence for your business; and,
– Tools you can use to help you know you’re on the right track for getting found on Google.

As you know, there is a month for everything! From heritage to interests to social causes, there is an opportunity to focus your marketing on likely for every 30 day cycle of the year. I know that retail sales goes

As you know, there is a month for everything! From heritage to interests to social causes, there is an opportunity to focus your marketing on likely for every 30 day cycle of the year. I know that retail sales goes on the traditional marketing schedule starting with Valentine’s Day and moving through the calendar straight through winter holidays (Christmas, Chanukah, and others) season.

While this may work naturally for some businesses, most of my Small Business product and service businesses don’t align easily with these typical holidays. In contrast, using commemorative months, your business can likely find appropriate and complementary month(s) to focus your marketing efforts based on the topic around which your target audience can rally.

So, I was delighted to learn that Google identified June as Mobile Month–an entire 30 days devoted to helping you learn about mobile marketing–and they needed a few GSBA’s to sit on a panel via Twitter to help answer Mobile website and marketing questions. Below is the slideshow and text archive of the June 23rd tweetchat; pan through the slideshow or read the transcript, and feel free to reach out with questions.

User

Tweet

Timestamp

GoogleSmallBiz

Welcome to the #AskAMobilePro chat! Our experts are here to answer your questions and help you get your #smallbiz optimized for mobile.

Thu Jun 23 19:00:05 +0000 2016

w3consulting

RT @GoogleSmallBiz: Welcome to the #AskAMobilePro chat! Our experts are here to answer your questions and help you get your #smallbiz optim…

Thu Jun 23 19:00:12 +0000 2016

GoogleSmallBiz

Check in! Let us know where you’re Tweeting from and tell us about your #smallbiz! #AskAMobilePro

Thu Jun 23 19:01:00 +0000 2016

Tbach84

RT @GoogleSmallBiz: Welcome to the #AskAMobilePro chat! Our experts are here to answer your questions and help you get your #smallbiz optim…

Thu Jun 23 19:01:02 +0000 2016

ConradSaam

RT @GoogleSmallBiz: Welcome to the #AskAMobilePro chat! Our experts are here to answer your questions and help you get your #smallbiz optim…

Thu Jun 23 19:01:13 +0000 2016

w3consulting

RT @GoogleSmallBiz: Check in! Let us know where you’re Tweeting from and tell us about your #smallbiz! #AskAMobilePro

Thu Jun 23 19:01:17 +0000 2016

NewMedia4Agents

RT @GoogleSmallBiz: Welcome to the #AskAMobilePro chat! Our experts are here to answer your questions and help you get your #smallbiz optim…

Thu Jun 23 19:01:18 +0000 2016

csavio

RT @GoogleSmallBiz: Welcome to the #AskAMobilePro chat! Our experts are here to answer your questions and help you get your #smallbiz optim…

Thu Jun 23 19:01:21 +0000 2016

MartinSherv

A very good day @GoogleSmallBiz and everyone attending! #AskAMobilePro

Thu Jun 23 19:01:33 +0000 2016

JOEury

Jeanne with NC Retail Merchants Assn here…love the Google programs and share them with our members
#askamobilepro

Thu Jun 23 19:01:41 +0000 2016

w3consulting

@MartinSherv @GoogleSmallBiz Hey, Martin! #AskAMobilePro

Thu Jun 23 19:02:13 +0000 2016

w3consulting

@JOEury Welcome, Jeanne! Glad to have you on the #AskAMobilePro chat today!

Thu Jun 23 19:02:28 +0000 2016

JazGreer

RT @MartinSherv: A very good day @GoogleSmallBiz and everyone attending! #AskAMobilePro

Thu Jun 23 19:02:47 +0000 2016

mygeigermeister

Q1: Why is mobile important to you and your business? #AskAMobilePro

Mobile is important because it is a new gateway to find customers.

Thu Jun 23 19:02:59 +0000 2016

GoogleSmallBiz

Let’s start out by having you share your most pressing questions about #mobile for #smallbiz. #AskAMobilePro

Thu Jun 23 19:03:00 +0000 2016

JazGreer

RT @GoogleSmallBiz: Check in! Let us know where you’re Tweeting from and tell us about your #smallbiz! #AskAMobilePro

Thu Jun 23 19:03:08 +0000 2016

w3consulting

RT @GoogleSmallBiz: Let’s start out by having you share your most pressing questions about #mobile for #smallbiz. #AskAMobilePro

Thu Jun 23 19:03:13 +0000 2016

JazGreer

RT @GoogleSmallBiz: Welcome to the #AskAMobilePro chat! Our experts are here to answer your questions and help you get your #smallbiz optim…

Thu Jun 23 19:03:29 +0000 2016

MartinSherv

Good to meet you @JOEury! #askamobilepro

Thu Jun 23 19:03:39 +0000 2016

curatormary

Hello to all #smallbiz from San Diego! #AskAMobilePro

Thu Jun 23 19:03:39 +0000 2016

JazGreer

A1 Because more people are using mobile and we need to engage with customers where they are at! #AskAMobilePro

Thu Jun 23 19:04:35 +0000 2016

JazGreer

RT @curatormary: Hello to all #smallbiz from San Diego! #AskAMobilePro

Most people don’t realize the importance of vital resources until it’s missing suddenly from their lives. Case in point: you likely don’t contemplate the air you breathe at any given moment, unless you’re deprived of it. Not to be too

Most people don’t realize the importance of vital resources until it’s missing suddenly from their lives. Case in point: you likely don’t contemplate the air you breathe at any given moment, unless you’re deprived of it. Not to be too melodramatic, but that’s kind of what the Web is to most businesses today. It’s a commodity that’s taken for granted and only until you cannot access it do you realize it as sine qua non for running your business in this modern era.

And, of course, we access the Web through Web browsers. You may not think about how different Web browsers really are, again, until they inhibit your ability to get things done. Google had been thinking about this for years and in 2008 released their own little browser that can, Google Chrome. I say “little” because it’s code is compact and therefore very fast, and I said “that can” because it has some many abilities, you just need to ask and it can likely do it. That’s what this Webinar is all about: Google Chrome and using it in your business.

In this Web-based presentation, we cover:

why Small Business should be using Google Chrome;

the best features and extensions for Chrome for Small business; and,

how to implement Google Chrome on your computers/laptops and smartphones.

—
These Webinars are hosted by the Virginia Small Business Development Center Network – http://virginiasbdc.org – and presented by Ray Sidney-Smith, Managing Director of W3C Web Services, providing affordable Web, WordPress, email, domain and other related services for Small Business – http://web.w3cinc.com. With the transfer of your business’ domain, Web *and* email hosting services, get a complimentary 1-hour Web, Mobile & Social Media strategy session. Email [email protected] to get started!

Periodically, I will be writing a What’s New at Google post here to update you about new updates to the Google ecosystem that affects you as a Small Business owner. These can be warnings as well as the many frequent enhancements

This is just the beginning! Click the title of this article to read the full text. Enjoy! And, comment. And, share. 😉

Periodically, I will be writing a What’s New at Google post here to update you about new updates to the Google ecosystem that affects you as a Small Business owner. These can be warnings as well as the many frequent enhancements

This is just the beginning! Click the title of this article to read the full text. Enjoy! And, comment. And, share. 😉

Brands are everywhere! Products and services are constantly advertised to consumers through social media, mobile devices, digital signage among many other new and traditional avenues. There is more competition than ever for brand recognition and loyalty among consumers.

As consumers increase in volume and technological savvy, businesses must adapt their approach to marketing and branding to them. Creating high-quality brand visuals and messages is a must, but to truly distinguish their brands, 21st century brand stewards must go a step further. Three principles, each beginning with the letter M, will help the men and women who create brands achieve greater success in today’s market.

Meaningful

Branding for today’s audiences should, first and foremost, be meaningful, answering the question, “What is the problem that is being solved through the product or service?” Brand messaging is rooted in seeking answers to real problems. Common emotions or situations, such as humor, happiness or fear can be used and even featured in brand messaging or imagery, but ultimately if there is no need that is clear, the brand positioning ought to be re-considered.

This principle is the one of the three discussed here that is most essentially connected to both producer and consumer. To solve problems is why companies get into business, and why customers seek out businesses or organizations in the first place. This aim of branding will answer this question: “How will it meet a need in your life? How does it do it better or differently than anything else?”

Brand experiences developed for products and services give meaning by speaking to real and perceived needs and wants on the most basic human levels. Brand crafters should be able to restate their solutions as answers to problems and questions. This is important because clients and customers are more likely to return to brands that they feel excel at meeting real needs that they have.

Memorable

Secondly, brand experiences should be memorable. Children and adults love stories. We love to hear them and we love to make them up. We are always telling stories and responding to memories from childhood and other periods in life both the pleasant and painful times. This aim of branding answers this question: “How does this product or service make you feel?”

The human mind is always making connections. Brand crafters should use this to create visual and verbal links that tap into the power of stories and memories and heighten the awareness of brands to consumers. This can be done by developing visual and verbal elements (“symbols and saying”) that are either easy to remember or call to mind memories resonant with the target audience.

This principle is most important to the consumer (customer) side. Brands must seek creative ways to tell a story that is uniquely theirs in a way that is authentic and compelling. Discerning audiences can tell if the narrative being presented is not genuine. Fantasy, Future, Tradition, History, Values and Dreams are six of the most popular and common themes used repeatedly in compelling and successful branding.

Don’t underestimate how the power of stories and memories matter to consumers making sometimes difficult brand choices. Brand strategists and designers who tap into the right stories or and create the right memories can make connections with consumers that move them and motivate them to purchase a product or service. Consider the last great movie scene you witnessed and how easy it was to tell your friend about it. Consumers are far more likely to buy and share what they find memorable.

Measurable

Lastly, modern brand experiences should be measurable. Branding is a business tool, created with tangible business goals in mind, such as increased consumer awareness, expanded market share or successful entry into new markets.
After successfully appealing to the head and the heart, brand caretakers must then seek an answer to the questions, “How does it impact lives? How will we know if our initiative, rebranding, campaign is successful?” Branding strategists and designers have at their disposal many methods and tools to gather the answers, including analytics, focus groups, surveys, response cards, inbound marketing, search engine optimization and social influence among many others.

This principle is most important to the producer (the business or entity) than any of the others. Brand strategists and designers, operating as part of business teams, must use and create branding systems that produce some type of data that can be analyzed. They need to measure in a quantifiable ways the net gain in influence and value and profit for their brands and parent companies. They need to know it worked, or if it didn’t work, why was it unsuccessful. Stakeholders of all levels in an organization need to be able to determine if an expensive and expansive strategic campaign was successful in meeting its goals or not?

This principle is vital because lots of time and money is invested in branding. Failing to learn from past mistakes and misjudgments in this area can cost cash, credibility and even careers. In addition, branding is about reputation and perception and reputations and perceptions are two things that can change very quickly. In a world of constant change, data provides bankable evidence that helps brand crafters make better strategic decisions, which ultimately creates stronger businesses and brands.

Once you establish meaning and context for your branding in the everyday needs and wants of your audience, then craft a narrative that is authentic and strikes the right emotional chords, the last step is to deploy your visuals/messaging and keep track of what influence it is having on your intended audience through perception and behavior change.

As you think about the evolution of your brand, remember the 3 Ms: Meaningful, Memorable and Measurable. These are the indispensable characteristics and considerations you should use to guide successful branding strategy and create powerful and effective brand experiences.

Creating an Email Community With Google Email is a powerful communication tool when used effectively in a Small Business environment. And, Social Media is touted as the primary community-building tool on the Web. Well, email is just as powerful, and

Creating an Email Community With Google

Email is a powerful communication tool when used effectively in a Small Business environment. And, Social Media is touted as the primary community-building tool on the Web. Well, email is just as powerful, and you guessed it, Google gives you the tools to build an email community using its product, Google Groups. We will provide an overview of the Google Groups tool and then cover the practical steps in creating an email community and maintaining it for your business!

This Webinar, as part of the Beyond Google: Marketing and Managing on the Web series from Virginia SBDC, will be presented by Ray Sidney-Smith, Web & Mobile Strategist, author of SoLoMo Success: Social Media, Local and Web Small Business Marketing Strategy Explained, and President of W3 Consulting, a digital business strategy and training firm helping business owners learn why and how to use Web, mobile and digital technologies for greater marketing and management impact.